Highlighting the economic, environmental and social benefits of shooting to the UK

Main findings

In the UK today…

Shooters spend £2.5 billion each year on goods and services

Shooting supports the equivalent of 74,000 full time jobs

Shooting is worth £2 billion to the UK economy (GVA)

Shooting is involved in the management of two-thirds of the rural land area

There are 4 million (est) airgun owners – of which 1.6 m shoot live quarry

600,000 people in the UK shoot live quarry, clay pigeons or targets

Shoot providers spend nearly £250 million a year on conservation

Shooters spend 3.9 million work days on conservation – that’s the equivalent of 16,000 full-time jobs

Two million hectares are actively managed for conservation as a result of shooting

To view the full The Value of Shooting report click on one of the links below.

About the survey:

We all know that shooting is important. We know it’s good for the economy and the environment - and we all know from first-hand experience how the social aspects of shooting are beneficial to us and our local community.

But how can we prove it?

16 shooting and countryside organisations commissioned a comprehensive study to ascertain exactly what shooting is worth.

The survey - carried out by Cambridge-based Public and Corporate Economic Consultants (PACEC) - was to assess the economic, environmental and social benefits of shooting sports.

This independent and statistically robust report gives us the latest facts and figures. It demonstrates that shooting is involved in the management of most of the countryside, actively shaping the world around us with hundreds of millions of pounds of privately funded conservation effort. It records the hundreds of thousands of people who find their recreation and sport in the countryside and on the shooting ranges and clay grounds across the country. It shows, for the first time, the social benefits of an active recreation enjoyed by people of all ages and backgrounds.

The data collected were based on a 12- month period between August 2012 and July 2013.

A total of 16,234 questionnaires were completed, making this the most comprehensive research into the value of shooting ever undertaken in the United Kingdom.